The length of fiber optic cabling can vary between a customers' equipment and the financial institution or stock exchange the equipment is connected to. Financial institutions and stock exchanges are attempting to equalize the cable distance of all the fiber channels within their data center. The financial institutions and stock exchanges need to assure their customers that all data transactions will require the same amount of time to complete. If the financial institutions and stock exchanges fail to equalize the cable variation, some customers would have an advantage over others.
Thus, it is desirable to equalize the length of cable variance with each customers' equipment and the financial institution or the stock exchange.